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[1]But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.
[2]Yea, the strength of their hands, whereto should it profit me? men in whom ripe age is perished.
[3]They are gaunt with want and famine; they gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom wasteness and desolation.
[4]They pluck salt-wort with wormwood; and the roots of the broom are their food.
[5]They are driven forth from the midst of men; they cry after them as after a thief.
[6]In the clefts of the valleys must they dwell, in holes of the earth and of the rocks.
[7]Among the bushes they bray; under the nettles they are gathered together.
[8]They are children of churls, yea, children o ignoble men; they were scourged out of the land.
[9]And now I am become their song, yea, I am a byword unto them.
[10]They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face.
[11]For He hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, and they have cast off the bridle before me.
[12]Upon my right hand rise the brood; they entangle my feet, and they cast up against me their ways of destruction.
[13]They break up my path, they further my calamity, even men that have no helper.
[14]As through a wide breach they come; in the midst of the ruin they roll themselves upon me.
[15]Terrors are turned upon me, they chase mine honour as the wind; and my welfare is passed away as a cloud.
[16]And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction have taken hold upon me.
[17]In the night my bones are pierced, and fall from me, and my sinews take no rest.
[18]By the great force of my disease is my garment disfigured; it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.
[19]He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes.
[20]I cry unto Thee, and Thou dost not answer me; I stand up, and Thou lookest at me.
[21]Thou art turned to be cruel to me; with the might of Thy hand Thou hatest me.
[22]Thou liftest me up to the wind, Thou causest me to ride upon it; and Thou dissolvest my substance.
[23]For I know that Thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.
[24]Surely none shall put forth his hand to a ruinous heap, neither because of these things shall help come in one's calamity,
[25]If I have not wept for him that was in trouble, and if my soul grieved not for the needy.
[26]Yet, when I looked for good, there came evil; and when I waited for light, there came darkness.
[27]Mine inwards boil, and rest not; days of affliction are come upon me.
[28]I go mourning without the sun; I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.
[29]I am become a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches.
[30]My skin is black, and falleth from me, and my bones are burned with heat.
[31]Therefore is my harp turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of them that weep.
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